Field Schools!

It's that time of the year again... different archaeology projects are busy preparing for their summer field schools. Field schools are an opportunity for those interested in archaeological excavation to gain intensive, hands-on experience in the field. Field schools typically last around six weeks and students receive instruction in all aspects of archaeological investigation from professionals in the field. Completion of a field school is a basic requirement for almost any job in the field of archaeology. Luckily field schools are offered all over the country (and all over the world!!) so you can find one that meets your specific interests.

Last summer I worked as a Teaching Assistant for the Archaeology in Annapolis field school which was held for 3 weeks at the Wye House on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and for 3 weeks in the Historic District of Annapolis. You may want to check-out some of the posts on this blog from May, June and July of 2008 to read about last year's work. The field school this year will also be held in both locations. If you are considering a career in Historical Archaeology, this field school is the best of both worlds in that it offers instruction in both an urban and plantation environment. For more information about the University of Maryland, Archaeology in Annapolis field school see the following link:

http://www.bsos.umd.edu/anth/aia/school.htm

There's lots of opportunities for field schools in Historic, Prehistoric and Underwater Archaeology. A great place to learn about field schools (and archaeology jobs) is through a website called shovelbums. Here's the link to the field school page:
http://www.shovelbums.org/component/option,com_sobi2/catid,44/Itemid,880/

If you have any questions or would like some suggestions about what type of field school might be best for you, post a comment or email us at seekingliberty@gmail.com.

Archaeology Month!

I just thought I would remind everyone that April is Maryland Archaeology Month. I know we are half way through April already but luckily there's many ongoing events and a number of events yet to be held...

You may recall that last year the city of Annapolis was featured on the Maryland Archaeology Month poster. The poster attracted a lot of visitors to the city and in particular to the "Seeking Liberty" exhibit at the Banneker-Douglass Museum. This year the Archaeology Month poster features St. Mary's City in Southern Maryland, which was the first capital of the colony of Maryland. Historic St. Mary's City has a great archaeology program and they hold an archaeology field school each year. Dr. Tim Riordan, the chief archaeologist at Historic St. Mary's City will be giving an Archaeology Month lecture on Sunday, April 26th at 3pm at St. Mary's. The lecture will focus on findings from excavations at the Calvert House at St. Mary's which was excavated during the 2008 field school. St. Mary's City is also open to the public Tuesday through Saturday during the spring. The site offers reconstructions of many of buildings including the 1676 State House. There are also costumed interpreters on hand to teach visitors of all ages about Maryland's earliest years. It's well worth the trip! For more on St. Mary's City visit their website: http://www.stmaryscity.org/index.html

For information on Archaeology Month events visit the Archaeological Society of Maryland website: http://www.marylandarcheology.org/Arch_Month_2009/Index.htm

Written in Bone

I recently visited a really incredible exhibit which is now on display at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. The exhibit is entitled "Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th-Century Chesapeake" and describes how archaeologists and forensic anthropologists study human remains in order to learn about how the people of the past lived. The exhibit includes many examples of bones that show the effect that different types of trauma or diseases have on the skeleton.

One of the most fascinating parts of the exhibit focused on an excavation that took place right here in Anne Arundel County, Maryland and was carried-out by the Lost Towns Project. On display is the skeleton of a boy that archaeologists found buried in what was once the basement of a plantation house on the Leavy Neck site. The boy was buried in a shallow hole which was too small and caused the skeleton to bend at the the hips and knees. The body was covered with a thick layer of clay and then the cellar was filled in with trash. The lack of care taken in the burial of this boy shows that he was most likely considered to be a person of very little value to the family who lived on the plantation. The boy's skeleton also shows signs of physically demanding work and poor nutrition which indicate he was almost certainly an indentured servant. In addition, scientists discovered that the boy's wrist was broken prior to death. Archaeologists believe that the clandestine nature of the burial, the lack of regard for the body, along with the physical trauma suffered by this boy indicate abuse and possibly a violent death. The archaeologists and forensic anthropologists who study the "Leavy Neck Boy" admit that they will never know exactly the events that led to this boy's death but that his skeleton certainly has aided them learning a lot about the every day lives of indentured servants in the Chesapeake.

This was a really interesting and informative exhibit that is great for visitors of all ages and all levels of archaeological understanding. The exhibit is on display through February 2011. Check out the following link for more information on the exhibit: http://anthropology.si.edu/writteninbone/index.html

Reynolds Tavern Exhibit

I wanted to take a moment to follow-up on Genevieve's last entry. Amelia and I are in fact hard at work putting the finishing touches on the off-site exhibits. We were able to complete the small exhibit at Reynolds Tavern which was debuted at the Queen Anne's birthday celebration in February. It was a celebration worthy of the Queen, complete with a lively costumed Queen Anne impersonator and speeches by current British diplomat Dominik Chilcott and Annapolis Mayor, Ellen O. Moyer. Everyone was very interested in the artifacts on display and we got some really positive feed-back!

In this exhibit we included contents from the second cache of materials found in the Reynolds Tavern basement. It is believed that this distinct deposit of materials, which dates to the early 1800's, is related to African Spiritual practices and was possibly used for healing or safeguarding. Material in the cache includes everyday objects such as pieces of broken glass and pottery, oyster shells, rusted nails, crab claws, pieces of smoking pipes and many more objects. The other cache found at Reynolds is still on display at the Banneker-Douglass Museum.

The exhibit at Reynolds includes many other exciting artifacts, all of which were found during excavations at the Tavern in the early 1980s. Be sure to visit the exhibit ... and stay for tea if you can!

For information on visiting Reynolds Tavern visit:
www.reynoldstavern.org/tea.html

To read more about Queen Anne’s birthday celebration see the following links:
www.hometownannapolis.com/news/top/2009/02/07-03/Queens-legacy-yields-new-significance-on-344th-birthday.html?ne=1

www.ci.annapolis.md.us/headlines.asp?ID=13666

Seeking Liberty Expands!

Over the past two months exhibition designer Amelia Harris and archaeologist Jessica Mundt have worked steadily to create new satellite Seeking Liberty exhibitions at three of the sites featured in the exhibition at the Banneker-Douglass Museum. Calvert House, Reynolds Tavern, and the Green Print Shop are the proud hosts of mini-exhibitions telling the story of their buildings through archaeology. The Capital recently ran an article on the new exhibitions. Click here to view the article.

Visitors are invited to view the new exhibits this Sunday, 29 March 2009 during the second annual Four Rivers Heritage Area sponsored Maryland Day. On Maryland Day, over 30 sites around Annapolis and South County including the Green Print Shop and the Banneker-Douglass Museum will open their doors free of charge to the public and offer special activities for visitors from 12:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. To learn more about this event, visit the Maryland Day website at www.marylandday.org.

Upcoming Archaeology Lecture

Dr. Mark Leone, the guest curator for Seeking Liberty, will present a lecture at the Banneker-Douglass Museum this Saturday on Frederick Douglass and Wye House Farm. The University of Maryland conducts field schools at Wye House Farm every summer uncovering several artifacts including the remnants of a slave village.

Wye House Farm was one of the places Frederick Douglass was enslaved at during his lifetime. The plantation, owned by the Lloyd family, was established in the 1650s. The Lloyd Family was one of the largest slave holding families on the Eastern Shore.

Come to the Banneker-Douglass Museum this Saturday, February 14, 2009 at 2pm to learn more about the work happening at Wye House Farm and Frederick Douglass' connection to this Maryland location. The lecture is free of charge and registration is not required.

Surprise!

Just after my last posting declaring the end of Seeking Liberty, I was informed of the possibility that the exhibition would be extended. I held off publishing that information until I had confirmation on that fact. I am now pleased to announce that Seeking Liberty has indeed been extended through the end of January and most likely through the end of February! The blog will continue through the end of the exhibition. Hooray!

Check back here in the coming weeks for information on upcoming programming at the museum as well as the follow up to the French archaeological digs. Please feel free to contact us with any archaeology-related projects you may be interested in seeing on this blog. We are always looking for more feedback and ideas.

Exhibit Closing

The end of a year always comes with a sense of closure for people whether it be closure on a good year in hopes of an even better one next time, closure on using one calendar and moving on to the next, and so on.

The end of 2008 will bring with it the closing of Seeking Liberty: An Imagined Community at the Banneker-Douglass Museum. The exhihibition will continue on in new forms with satellite exhibit cases at each of the five sites featured in the exhibition going on display in the coming month and the website will remain live. There is even talk of at least part of the exhibit going on display in other areas in Maryland.

Jess and I have been in discussion over the past few weeks regarding the future of the Seeking Liberty blog trying to determine how we would like to proceed. This blog has been a quiet one in terms of comments, however we know that there are many people out there reading it. Just to give you a taste, since the blog was launched, over 1500 people have visited from over 25 countries around the world. It is really gratifying to know that this exhibition has interested people from 6 continents. With that being said, we pose the question to you: What do you think we should do? We have come up with a few different options and would like to hear what you have to say.

Option 1: Do nothing. Continue the blog as usual, although most likely with fewer posts.
Option 2: End the blog when the exhibition ends on 31 December 2008.
Option 3: Convert the blog into a Banneker-Douglass Museum blog with occasional postings on archaeology and Seeking Liberty-related information.

What do you think? Send us your answers by posting below. If you do not want to leave a post, feel free to email me at BDMPrograms(at)goci(dot)state(dot)md(dot)us with your answer.
Thank you!

Horse harness decorations

The Four Rivers Heritage Area is compiling information about horses in the region, which led me to examine some of our collections for horse related artifacts. The following image is of a brass harness decoration which measures about three inches long and was found during excavations at the Governor Calvert House:

In his influential book A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America published in 1969, Ivor Noel Hume briefly mentions similar artifacts and attributes them to the 18th century.

Archaeology in Annapolis uncovered a similar, though less ornate, brass harness decoration from the Reynolds' Tavern site. During William Reynolds' occupation of the site, there was a stable behind the Tavern, which further supports the claim that this object was a harness decoration.

The MAC Lab website also features information and photographs of similar artifacts, which they identify as leather ornaments. The website states, "More often than not ... the metal ornaments were purely decorative and might have been placed on just about any leather strap, bag, saddle pad, sword hanger, etc." The information on leather ornaments is included in the "small finds" section of the website. The term "small finds" is used for objects that are found in small quantities on sites and therefore are difficult to analyze and interpret. The idea behind this portion of the MAC Lab website is to compile information on "small finds" so that they may eventually be used in site analysis.

As you can see we would love to learn more about leather ornaments so please add comments to this post with any additional information you may have.

To view the MAC Lab "small finds" site follow this link: http://www.jefpat.org/diagnostic/Small%20Finds/leather%20escutcheons/Web%20Pages/LeatherOrnaments.htm

Anne Arundel County Courthouse: Part III

Here is another really interesting artifact found at the courthouse site:

This is an 1896 presidential campaign button for the Republican candidate, William McKinley. As we mentioned before the courthouse block was occupied predominantly by African Americans through the middle of the 20th century. The Republican Party was in support of Emancipation and was therefore the political party of choice for African Americans during this time period. This button serves as a reminder that African Americans were politically active, having just received the right to vote in 1870 with the ratification of the 15th Amendment.

The McKinley election was actually the first time celluloid was used for campaign buttons. Celluloid buttons became very popular and are still commonly used today. Unfortunately, this material decomposes easily and therefore buttons like these are very rare to find during archaeological excavations.

Archaeology in Annapolis is currently working with the Historic Annapolis Foundation to create a small exhibit at the Anne Arundel County Courthouse on Church Circle in Annapolis. The exhbit will feature artifacts from excavations on the courthouse block and should be installed in the the coming year. We'll keep you posted on progress!

Archaeology on Vacation

Working as a museum educator requires me to become very knowledgeable on whatever topic the museum I work at focuses on. For instance, working at the National Building Museum years ago I learned more about city planning, bridge engineering, and geodesic domes (think Spaceship Earth aka the big golf ball shaped building at Epcot) than I ever thought I would. I still can't drive home to the midwest without looking at the different types of bridges along the way.

Last month I traveled around the Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Loire Valley regions of France and everywhere I went I ran across archaeological digs. One city I visited was Reims, the location of the signing of the Germany's surrender at the Allied headquarters at the end of World War II. Reims had a front row seat to history throughout the past century. After nearly being completely destroyed during WWI (85% of the buildings were gone) the city went on to serve as the home of the Allied Headquarters in France at the end of WWII and was the location of the signing of the ceasefire on 7 May 1945 bringing WWII in Europe to an end. A more widely known second signing was held one day later in Berlin.

While walking to the Musee de la Reddition, home of the former Allied headquarters, I came across an archaeological dig in progress on a main road in the city. This dig was part of pre-construction archaeology required by law. One of the things that I was very impressed with at this site as well as the one I came across in the Loire Valley was that each dig had signage explaining what was going on for anyone passing by. This took the form of the sign above in Reims.

Within the past 10 years, an intensive archaological study was conducted in Reims to trace the city's history back to the Roman times. The city has Roman ruins and archaologists have been able to successfully trace their findings as far back as two thousand years ago. The findings from this study are available by clicking here. Be aware the study is published in French, so you will need to translate the page if you don't read French.

When looking at the picture on the left you can see the stratigraphy (layering) of the ground. Evidence of roads and road construction from the past 100 years is on view for anyone passing by to view. Imagine what these roads have laid witness to especially given the few events I listed above. While I was at the Musee de la Reddition, I saw a film showing what the city of Reims looked like before and after its moment in history including events such as the V-E Day parades down the streets of the city, including this street. It was a great way for me to have some context as to what types of finds and materials the archaeologists might be looking for.

Coming soon: Archaeology in Angers, France -- The discovery of 5th century artifacts while building a city tramway

Anne Arundel County Courthouse: Part II

Now for the long-awaited Part II of the Anne Arundel County Courthouse blog entry...

So, as I mentioned before, prior to the expansion of the courthouse the entire courthouse block in Annapolis was home to an ethnically diverse community. Pictured below are ceramic pipe bowls embossed with the words "Home Rule" which were found at the site:

These pipe bowls are likely connected to Irish immigrants who called the Courthouse block home. "Home Rule" refers to the demand made by the Irish "Home Rule League" for greater autonomy for Ireland within the British Empire during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The presence of these pipes show that even while living in the United States, Irish immigrants were still involved in the politics of their home country. In 1879, Charles Stewart Parnell, leader of the Irish Nationalist movement, visited the United States to raise money and support for the movement.

Check back later this week to learn about another interesting artifact found at the courthouse site!

Rumney's Folly

I was just forwarded an announcement about a talk that will be given at Historic London Town and Gardens in December. The subject of the talk is Edward Rumney, Sr. who lived at London Town and is also connected to an archaeological site there. Here is the announcement:

"Rumney’s Folly
On Tuesday, December 2nd, at 7:00pm, Rod Cofield, Director of Interpretation and Museum Programs at Historic London Town and Gardens will present his latest research on London Town's Edward Rumney, Sr. Rod will discuss how Rumney, who had lived in Anne Arundel County since at least 1686, overextended himself in the 1710s due to his financial involvement in the ferrykeeping and innkeeping business. Once a respected man in the community, having served on juries and as a road overseer, Rumney saw the last few years of his life become debt-ridden and litigious. More people know about Rumney, Jr. (a known counterfeiter); now learn about his father. Admission is $5. London Town members and volunteers are free. Please RSVP at 410-222-1919."

Sounds like an interesting subject- Hope you can attend!

London Town is located in Edgewater, Maryland about a 20 minute drive from downtown Annapolis. For more on London Town visit their website: http://www.historiclondontown.org/

Online Survey

I just wanted to post a quick entry to let everyone know that I've recently updated the survey for the online version of the Seeking Liberty exhibit. The survey is available online and can be reached from the Seeking Liberty homepage. Or just paste this link in your address bar to fill-out the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=U8gk65cK16jATnVL176_2bOQ_3d_3d%22%3EClick%20Here%20to%20take%20survey

The survey includes 10 questions and should only take about 10 minutes of your time. We love to hear your comments so please fill-out the survey when you get a chance. Also, feel free to email any comments, questions or suggestions to seekingliberty@gmail.com.

I'm continuously updating the website with new images and information so check back frequently to view the new additions.

More news coverage of the African bundle

Here is the video from WUSA Channel 9 news coverage of the bundle. Stay tuned as we post more media hits throughout the week.